“The Marines teach you, above all, how to adapt, improvise, and overcome. But they expect you to have done your homework, to have mastered your profession. Amateur performance is anathema ...” Jim Mattis

Jim Mattis has been taught these qualities well by the Marines. The way he uses these capacities are the focus of his memoir, “Call Sign Chaos, Learning To Lead.” (Mattis is helped ably by another Marine-writer who served in Vietnam, Bing West.)

His memoir, “Call Sign Chaos, Learning To Lead” shows how a lifetime of service in the Marines earned him the gift of - in Henry Kissinger’s words - “a lesson in leadership and an evocation of humanity in the cause of peace.”

Mattis’s acceptance of challenge is why he took the job of Secretary of Defense under President Trump. (There have been plenty of others in his career. ) He writes, “I will pass on what prepared me for challenges I could not anticipate, nor take up the hot political rhetoric of our day.”

Like a good Marine, Mattis fails to criticize Trump in his book. Mattis’ letter of resignation - as Secretary of Defense – explains his motives deftly. It’s part of the book (pp. 247-8.) Basically, Mattis resigned writing to Trump that he needed someone as secretary whose “views are better aligned with yours."

Others think that Mattis hadn’t the guts to fire back at Trump. I don’t agree with this perspective. Give the president’s proclivities, this course of action was a non-starter – at least for people with prudence and an understanding of what makes for comity among factions after elections.

Back to Mattis’s reliance on his Marine training for how he makes his decisions. In the Prologue he remarks that Marines are bluntly critical of falling short, satisfied only with 100 percent effort and commitment.

Notwithstanding this, Mattis explains, “every time I made a mistake – and I made many – the Marines promoted me. They recognized that those mistakes were part of my tuition and a necessary bridge to learning how to do things right.”

This business of so many mistakes not being taken into account can’t be accurate. Nobody succeeds in the military carrying a backpack of blunders to senior rank. I take Mattis’ remark as a bow to an innate humility on his part. He’s a tough guy who’s learned from his mistakes. He says as much when he writes, "Without arrogance or ignorance, I could answer yes when asked to serve one more time."

Mattis’ purpose in the book is to convey the lessons he’s learned, whether for those in the military or in civilian life. He says he’s old-fashioned and doesn’t write about sitting Presidents. Mattis abjures what he calls “the hot political rhetoric of our day” remaining, as he puts it, “a steward of the public trust.” Many readers will see this as prudence, others as dodging a bullet.

“Call Sign Chaos” is structured in three parts: Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. The first part is a portrait of his formative years growing up and then in the Corps, where he says he was raised by the Vietnam generation off Marines and where he first led Marines into battle.

In the second part, he describes what he calls "broadening tours of duty" where he commanded a force of 7,000 to 42,000 troops. He couldn’t possibly know everyone’s name. So he adapted his leadership style to ensure that his intent and concern, filtered through layers of command, were felt and understood by the youngest soldiers and sailors.

The third section of the book delves into what Mattis calls the challenges and techniques of leadership at the strategic level. He addresses civilian-military interaction from a senior military officer’s perspective. This is where one must try to reconcile war’s grim realities and political leaders’ human aspirations. Often they are not the same. Mattis puts it this way: “complexity reigns and the consequences of imprudence are severe, even catastrophic.”

By now you may be wondering, what does ‘Call Sign Chaos’, in the title mean? Answer: It is sly shorthand on Mattis’ part for saying that “making mistakes is part of learning to lead.”

Here is how Mattis explained the phrase during an Air Force Association Conference near Washington in 2017.

“My call sign was “Chaos”, and I must confess how I got it.

It was when I was a colonel in Twentynine Palms, where, according to him, “there’s nothing to do but go blow up the desert.” Well, he said, "Chaos" was an acronym meaning “the colonel has an outstanding solution.”

(Mattis also cheekily answered a question about another of his nicknames, “Mad Dog”, chuckling and saying, “It was a slow news day I think and somebody made it up,” noting that even his troops laughed when they heard it.)

Sprinkled throughout the book are examples of how Mattis acquired such a steely will. His parents gave him wide latitude to travel and explore as a teenager. Later, years of taking orders are surely part of it. Being a solo-commander, unmarried and hardworking, fighting and studying – a great reader of history – are elements that contribute. Mattis has been described as a devout Catholic. He’s affable if self-contained. He knows his limits as he makes the rounds touting his new book. Mattis has done his homework and mastered his profession.

“Call Sign Chaos, Learning To Lead” is a valuable read with lessons for life.

Mattis will return to the Northwest where he is Davies Family Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. But I wouldn’t rule out a return to public service if he thinks he’s needed.

Michael D. Langan is the NBC-2.com Culture Critic. He has written for the BBC, the Dublin Review of Books, Boston Globe, Buffalo News, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and numerous other publications. Langan joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1955.